Harry Partch

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Lore & Background

Harry Partch was born in Oakland, California, on June 24, 1901, to a Presbyterian missionary father and a mother who had served as a missionary teacher in China; they fled the Boxer Rebellion. His family moved to Arizona and later New Mexico, where he learned mandolin, violin, piano, reed organ, and cornet. By fourteen, he was composing, and he took to setting dramatic situations. He enrolled at the University of Southern California's School of Music in 1920 but dropped out in 1922, dissatisfied with his teachers. In San Francisco's libraries, he discovered Hermann von Helmholtz's *Sensations of Tone*, which convinced him to devote himself to just intonation. In 1930, he burned many of his previous compositions in a rejection of the European concert tradition, though some earlier works survived or were later reconstructed. Partch frequently moved around the U.S., working as a transient laborer and sometimes a hobo; later he depended on grants, university appointments, and record sales. In 1970, supporters created the Harry Partch Foundation to administer his music and instruments. He died on September 3, 1974.

Reader's Guide

Harry Partch's significance lies in his systematic rejection of standard Western twelve-tone equal temperament and his development of a microtonal musical language based on just intonation. By building his own instruments to realize his 43-tone scales, he created a unique sonic world. His book *Genesis of a Music* (1947) codified his theories. Partch's concept of 'corporeal' music emphasized physicality and visceral experience, contrasting with what he saw as the abstract trend in Western music since J.S. Bach's *The Well-Tempered Clavier*. His integrated theater works, blending music, dance, speech, and drama, drew on ancient Greek and Japanese traditions. Though he remained on the margins of the mainstream, his work has been preserved and administered by the Harry Partch Foundation, and his instruments and compositions continue to inspire experimental musicians and instrument builders.

Did You Know?

• Partch burned many of his earlier compositions in a rejection of the European concert tradition around 1930, but some works survived or were later reconstructed.
• He built a viola with the neck and fingerboard of a cello, called the Adapted Viola, to play a 29-tone scale.
• Partch's father was a Presbyterian missionary in China, and his mother was a former missionary teacher, but there is no reliable source that his mother sang to him in Mandarin.
• In 1943, Partch was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative work in music composition.

A New Tuning World

Harry Partch's central musical contribution was his systematic use of just intonation, a tuning system drawn from the natural harmonic series rather than the twelve equal divisions that dominate Western concert practice. His scales divided the octave into 43 unequal tones, producing intervals smaller and more numerous than standard tuning allows. This was not merely a theoretical exercise; Partch physically built instruments tuned to these scales so his compositions could actually be performed. Among his creations were the Chromelodeon, the Quadrangularis Reversum, and the Zymo-Xyl, each designed to realize specific intervals from his 43-tone system. He also crafted an Adapted Viola with a cello-sized fingerboard to explore a 29-tone scale. Partch described his music as "corporeal," emphasizing physical and visceral experience, and positioned it against what he saw as the abstract trajectory of Western music since Bach's *The Well-Tempered Clavier*, which he regarded as the pivot point where older just intonation tunings were largely abandoned in favor of equal temperament's practical flexibility across all 24 key signatures.

A Restless, Self-Made Life

Partch's path was anything but conventional. Born in Oakland in 1901 to Presbyterian missionary parents who had served in China and fled the Boxer Rebellion, he grew up in a multilingual, musically rich household—his mother sang to him in Mandarin, he heard Yaqui music in Arizona, and he learned mandolin, violin, piano, reed organ, and cornet. He lost his father in 1919 and his mother to a trolley accident in 1920. After enrolling at USC's School of Music, he left after the summer of 1922, dissatisfied with his instructors. In San Francisco's public libraries he found a translation of Helmholtz's *Sensations of Tone*, which redirected his entire musical thinking toward just intonation. He supported himself as a piano teacher, proofreader, sailor, and transient worker, sometimes living as a hobo. In 1930, in New Orleans, he burned all his earlier scores in a potbelly stove, a dramatic severance from the European concert tradition. Later in life he relied on grants, university appointments, and record sales to sustain his work.

Music as Total Theatre

Partch's compositional ambitions evolved dramatically over his career. His earliest surviving works were small-scale pieces meant to be intoned with simple, folkloric string accompaniment, drawing on sources as varied as Biblical verse, Shakespeare, and translations of the Chinese poet Li Bai. By the 1930s and beyond, his vision had expanded into large-scale integrated productions that fused singing, dancing, spoken word, and instrumental performance into what he called a "corporeal apotheosis." Each performer was expected to embody multiple roles simultaneously. These works were decidedly related to, yet quite apart from, Wagnerian opera. Partch drew heavily on Ancient Greek theatre and on Japanese Noh and kabuki traditions. His 1932 performances in San Francisco and Los Angeles, including a notable appearance at Henry Cowell's New Music Society of California, marked early public encounters with this radical theatrical-musical vision.

Legacy and Institutional Life

Partch's influence extends well beyond his own performances. Alongside Lou Harrison, he stands as one of the first Western composers in the twentieth century to work systematically with microtonal scales. His 1947 book *Genesis of a Music* laid out the theoretical and practical foundations of his tuning system and instrument-building philosophy. In 1970, a group of supporters established the Harry Partch Foundation to steward his compositions and his collection of hand-built instruments. Partch died on September 3, 1974, leaving behind a body of work that challenged fundamental assumptions about pitch, performance, and the relationship between music and the human body.